SUBJECT: diversion of transactions/funds from being deposited into business account done remotely?
Is it possible for a minor business partner to covertly divert card transactions away from being deposited into the medical practice’s bank account? For the last 2 years we have been almost entirely telehealth-based. He was able to obtain a card reader after I refused to let him have equal access to Square functions (fearing he would find a way to take funds & justify it in some way) he declared he would discuss the issue with Square support. He is not involved in patient care nor handling patients’ credit/debit card-based payments for virtual visits. The payments occur via Square P.O.S. app as card-not-present transactions, & are chiefly the role of the office manager/patient liaison. When presented with the numbers & the predicament, she retorted “If I was diverting several thousands of dollars away from being deposited into the business account, did you think I would at least get my car fixed which breaks down every other month? Don’t you think that I would at least pay my rent which is often overdue? If I was making an extra $6000-$9000 per month at the practices expense, don’t you think that would be obvious in some way?… and she has a point although she’s still a suspect in my opinion. so far, the only thing that I can see the retired attorney/non-producing partner used reader is to submit his own payment every other month, as he is also a patient. The drastic plummet of incoming funds and dwindling numbers of deposits began in August 2022, but so far I’ve not been able to identify what is happening entirely. Since we operate via telehealth or telemedicine, the Office Manager/PATIENT liaison and myself both work from our own homes, so I can’t look over her shoulder and see what exactly she is doing with the patients information, and most of the time she processes the cards for payment not from the Square customer directory, so a lot of the transactions that do come through Square are anonymous, identifiable only by the last four digits of the card number, date and time of transaction. I really don’t want to get law-enforcement etc. involved without getting more information, because I don’t want to have all that happen and get the wrong person in trouble. Plus, when authorities go around kicking rocks, there’s a possibility that they might find very minor things that might’ve been overlooked that could possibly get me in trouble too. But if this is embezzlement as it appears to be, it has become very overt. Only about 20 to 25% of the population of patients that we see in process on a monthly basis have their payments processed through Square. The rest of the payments, aside from a few personal checks from certain patients, are either not being collected at all or are being diverted away. The problem, I don’t have much evidence one way or the other with the exception of the massive drop in accounts receivable. Unfortunately, I am not one of those physicians who also is a business genius. I know a little about business and his practice basically fell in my lap. I wanted to use Square in order to get away from taking actual cash money, which was costly because of fees, but we avoided being labeled & stigmatized as cash – only doctors often are. Additionally, it was much easier to get paid when the COVID pandemic hit. Anyway, I was just wondering if anybody knew if there was a way for a tech savvy and Wiley person like the minor partner/retired attorney is. He’s not been entirely trustworthy at all when it comes to taking liberties with the business account. That’s not been happening for a good while. The problem now is the majority of any accounts receivable funds aren’t being deposited into the account at all. Thanks in advance for any insight into possible digital rerouting.
